


out there

by Juledrops



Category: Mystery Science Theater 3000
Genre: M/M, Other, but especially him and Crow, hey did you know i'm a huge mst3k dweeb, i love jonah heston and him and his bots are all in love alright, no?, okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-08-10
Packaged: 2018-12-07 00:25:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11612088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Juledrops/pseuds/Juledrops
Summary: Crow is suffering from a bit of an existential crisis, and Jonah's there to help him out.





	1. Chapter 1

Crow will never admit it out loud, but he’s definitely afraid.

He doesn’t really sleep, per se (Joel forgot to give him eyelids), but on the off-chance that he does think of the extraordinary and scary, he’ll sometimes go back to a movie that they watched. He loves horror, loves the macabre and gruesome and loves making fun of it, but deep down, sometimes his fears manifest and he’s shaken to his core. Unsettled. 

But he would never admit it. Never say out loud to anyone that sometimes movies just make him _think_.

Tonight he spider-crawls into Jonah’s room and makes his way to the single cot where the other sleeps peacefully. It’s almost comical how serene he looks, given his circumstances - and he almost hates to interrupt his peace, but - well -

“Hey.” He grasps Jonah’s shoulder, shakes him a little, tries to move his large frame to the side to make room. “Hey. _Move_ ,” he repeats sharply, hoisting his legs into the cot.

Jonah jolts awake like he’s been electrocuted. “What?! Crow?! God, what are you _doing_?” His hair is spewing in several different directions, which is _almost_ cute, and he fumbles for his glasses on the table beside him - Crow realizes how odd he looks without them. He steadies them on his face, blinks three times, props himself up into a sitting position. “What the heck? What are you doing in here?”

“I want to sleep here,” Crow replies, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, trying to steady his voice in the process.

Jonah sighs, rubs his eyes under his glasses, places them on his nose again. “Dude….it’s a single bed. As in one person? What’s wrong?” Concern furrows his brow, and for a second Crow actually considers being honest, but he bites his (metaphorical) tongue on it. 

“Nothing!” the bot barks, hoisting his legs into the bed and shoving Jonah over before the other can protest. It _is_ a tight squeeze, but the tiny bot already feels better - it’s not like he takes up that much room anyway, what’s Jonah going _on_ about? 

“Do you even sleep?” Jonah mumbles, and even the dark Crow can see his muddy glare towards him. “No,” he snaps back. “I just think a lot, that’s all. Is there a problem?”

“I don’t know what’s gotten into you,” Jonah huffs, releasing his arm that’s been pinned under him by Crow’s interruption and slumping back down against his pillow. “But it’s whatever, I guess.” He closes his eyes, scrunching his nose as he feels the bot snuggle closer to him. Crow. _Snuggling_. Of all the things.

It’s silent for a long time, minus the few minutes Crow takes to make himself comfortable, and Jonah starts to think he’s maybe drifted off (as much as he can, anyway, he doesn’t have eyelids) -

“Jonah?” 

“Mnhm.” He doesn’t open his eyes.

“What do you miss most about home?”

 _That_ gets his eyes snapping open, and his brain thinking. He stares at the robot, who’s clicking his tiny hands together while laying on his back. “Uh…” He moves the hair out of his eyes, and ponders. “My family, I guess? Eating real food? My friends? People in general? Why do you ask?” 

“I dunno. I’ve never been outside the ship. I don’t know what Earth is like.” Crow’s metal hands continue to clink against each other. Jonah has never seen him this pensive - it’s actually kind of worrying him. Crow is usually snarky, sarcastic and sometimes downright obscene - this is a completely new side of him Jonah’s never seen. 

“I was made inside this ship,” Crow continues, when Jonah doesn’t answer. “So…this is all I’ve ever known.” He turns to face Jonah, yellow golf-ball eyes luminous in the dark. “What’s Earth like?”

“Wow. Uh..” Jonah laughs nervously, rolling onto his side. “That’s kind of a big question, buddy. I mean….there’s definitely crazy people. Not like Kinga, that’s for sure, but there’s a lot of messed up people out there…but the majority of people are good. There’s a lot of places you can live anywhere in the world. Like, a lot. And, um…” He pauses. “The food in my hometown is good. I miss my mom’s cooking, even though I moved out of my home years ago.”

There’s a contemplative silence that hangs in the air for some time, and Crow seems to be processing this new information. Then, almost as if he hasn’t heard Jonah previously - “You’re not like the others.”

“What?”

“The others, Joel….Mike…they wanted to escape. But you…you seem almost happy to be here. With us.” 

Blood rushes to Jonah’s face almost immediately, and he rubs his nose. “I mean…gotta make the best of it, right? This is the most interesting thing to happen to me in awhile, heh…” _But honestly, is anyone even looking for me at all? Do they know I’m gone?_

Another beat passes. “You’re freakin’ me out, man,” Jonah whispers into the dark, propping himself up on an elbow, which sinks into the thin mattress. “Are you okay?”

Crow dog-paddles his hands in the air, reaching out into the blackness of the room. “I’d like to see Earth sometime,” he muses. “Get off this ship, maybe.”

“If I find a way to escape, I’ll take you guys with.” Jonah grins. “But this place is a fortress, so-”

“Hey now, who said I’d wanna escape with _you_? Ew,” Crow snaps back, but it’s half-hearted and Jonah can tell he doesn’t really mean it. He closes his eyes again, drawing his chin to his chest and curling up in a fetal position, as much as he can with Crow where he is.

“Jonah?”

“Hm.”

“Can you tell me more stories about Earth, tomorrow night?” Crow is burrowing closer into his chest, and the coolness of the metal comes as a relief against his arms. Jonah smiles. “Yeah, buddy. As many as you want.”

“Okay.” His clawed hands curl around Jonah’s waist, clenching the thick fabric in a tight grip. “Just so you know, it’s not like I enjoy your company or anything. I just want to know more about Earth so when I get there, I’ll be an _expert_.”

“Yeah, sure.” Eyes still closed, Jonah hugs the bot closer to him as he drifts off, and for once, Crow doesn’t push away.

 

Crow doesn’t have eyelids, but he still dreams. And thinks.  
That night, he dreams of something he doesn’t have a word for. It’s green, and there’s so much of it, and it’s not the inside of the ship.  
He has to remember to ask Jonah what it is when he wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> bOI i am such a big MST3K nerd. i love the new season. robots and space and a cute host? yes. they're all in love. i love crow/jonah don't look at me


	2. Chapter 2

Crow awakens from sleep mode in the middle of the night with a jolt. He remembers.

“Jonah!” He shakes the other awake feverishly, trying to keep the image in his mind before it escapes. “Jonah! Wake up, I need to ask you something!”

“Whaaaaat.” Jonah picks his head up from the bed, hair messy and unkempt. He slaps around on the nightstand for awhile before finding his glasses, sliding them over his nose as per usual and staring at Crow, eyes narrowed. “Crow…it’s like…” He checks his watch. “3am. It’s 3am. You already woke me up once to sleep here, what is it?”

“I remembered what I dreamed about!” the bot exclaims, tiny hands flailing around his head. “It was green, and….there was lots of it. But it was only on the ground.” He taps his fingers together, trying to gather his memory, the clink clink clink of his metal fingertips echoing in the space chamber. “It went on for miles.”

Jonah yawns. “Grass?” he offers helpfully, and Crow turns to stare at him. “Is that what it’s called?”

“Mhmmm. Trust me, it’s not that amazing. There’s tons of it on Earth, anywhere you can think of.” Jonah rolls on his side, curling up into a ball. “Are you okay now? You haven’t slept in your own bed for the past three nights. Will that help you fall asleep?” In the dark, Crow notices an eye roll. “Tom can sleep on his own just fine…honestly, I don’t know what’s gotten into you.”

“Yeah, I’m good now. I dunno…I like your stories, that’s all.” Crow honestly can’t offer much more than that - it’s all true - he likes listening to Jonah talk. He notices, however, that his exterior seems to feel very hot right now. Just like how it’s been for the past few nights.

When he turns to face Jonah, the human is smiling. “Whaaaat,” Crow drawls, suddenly overcome with a feeling of….what’s the word? He’s literally never felt it before, but Jonah’s eyes on him are making him uncomfortable, and it’s just weird.

Not in a _terrible_ way, though.

“You _do_ care.” Jonah grins, puppy eyes glinting even in the pitch blackness of the room, and Crow suddenly realizes the human emotion he’s feeling…it’s _embarrassment._ He covers his eyes, which only makes him look more vulnerable and stupid, and when he peeks through his fingers he sees Jonah propped up on one arm, grinning like he just heard the funniest joke in the world and only he knows the punchline. 

“I never said that. Stop staring at me,” Crow growls, and Jonah laughs, a soft noise that catches Crow off guard. He is absolutely _burning_ right now; he can feel the heat radiating off him in waves, and he prays to himself silently that Jonah can’t feel it and won’t say anything about it.

“You didn’t have to,” Jonah replies with a dopey grin, one that does something to Crow’s insides (or what’s there to begin with). “You’re _adorable_ , Crow, look at you.”

If Crow had a heart, it would be bursting out of his chest right about now. 

“Whatever. I said I liked your stories, not _you_ ,” he snaps, but it’s without malice, and a dead giveaway. Jonah, bless his heart, just laughs and smiles again, accompanied with a soft “Whatever you say,” soothing the tension in the room and allowing it to lapse into comfortable, grateful silence. Thank _god_ , because Crow isn’t sure how to follow that up.

“I can’t go to sleep,” he says after a long while, not sure if Jonah is already gone.

He hears the other sigh, feels him roll over and reach for something on the floor. He surfaces with a strange contraption, which Crow can only make out in the dark as something small, able to fit in Jonah’s palm. “What’s that?” he asks gently, watching Jonah attach something to the bottom of it, and he’s surprised when the other hands it over.

“The one thing I managed to come up here with,” Jonah says with a grin. “Behold! My MP3 player. All the music you could ever want, here in this tiny little box.” He presses a button on the player and the screen floods over with light, blinding Crow for a second. He watches in silence as Jonah uses the wheel in the center to scroll through endless songs, playlists, tracks, and albums, and he notices the big pair of headphones in the human’s hand…and for a moment, Crow feels a twinge of pity. Jonah did have a life on Earth before it was taken from him. 

“Here.” Headphones are being placed over Crow’s large head (as much as it can fit). “It’s mine,” Jonah continues. “I like a lot of music, but I’ll play you some soft stuff to help you fall asleep. Trust me, it does wonders.”

Crow barely has enough time to thank him before a soft melody floods the holes in his ears, gentle and lulling. He’s hard-pressed to argue that he doesn’t want to sleep yet, but it’s hard when Jonah, looking sleepy and adorable, closes his eyes next to him.

Crow at last gives in, squishing in close to Jonah’s chest and wrapping his arms around his waist. The music is nice. He pegged Jonah as someone with shit hipster taste, but…

 

 

He dreams of grass again, but the music leads him into seeing blue. A bright cerulean cape over a field of grass, endless, stretching over the Earth.

There is so much more, and his world seems to shrink a bit more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> when there's no good crow/jonah fic so ya gotta make your own [cracks knuckles] my time has come
> 
> I FELT COMPELLED TO WRITE A SEQUEL idk i'm finishing up my cosplay and i just had so much mst3k love in my heart
> 
> also Crow is HELLLLAAAAA dokis for Jonah good god he has no idea what he's feeling but he kinda likes it


End file.
